Local police need de-escalation training

Black lives matter to me in the abstract, and my heart aches every time an innocent black man is shot dead by law enforcement. But on the occasion of my daughter’s wedding, it became personal.

For the wedding last October, she invited her friends from preschool, high school, college, medical school and residency. Many were physicians, as she is, and all were accomplished professionals and a diverse lot, representing all races and ethnicities.

The day after the wedding, these 30-somethings gathered to eat and drink leftovers from the wedding reception, and to celebrate this marriage and their friendships. It was a wonderful and joyous reunion. That is, until one of the guests, Joseph R. Cloud, whom we call “J.R.”, stepped into the yard to answer a phone call and was suddenly ordered at gunpoint to flatten himself on the ground.

Not by a gang member or a thief ... by the Gainesville Police Department.

The man that GPD was looking for was a clean-shaven man in his 50s, a Persian Gulf veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder and a reported grudge against a local used car dealership he claimed took his money without providing a reliable vehicle. He threatened to come back with a gun if his money was not returned.

By contrast, J.R. is a bearded man who is just over 30 years old. He’s a high school science teacher in Duval County. As the officers could clearly see, J.R. was not armed with a weapon, and was holding a cell phone. The only thing the man the GPD was looking for and J.R. have in common is that they are both black.

After he lay on his face on the ground and was handcuffed, the police officers took his wallet from his pocket and determined that J.R. was not the man they sought. The cuffs were removed and the heavily armed officers departed, continuing the hunt for their suspect.

J.R. has a smile to light up the room. He played tuba in the Eastside High School marching band, and by age 18 was an Eagle Scout. J.R. went to Florida A&M University to play in the famed Marching 100, and got a degree in earth space science. He loves showing his Jacksonville students the joys of marine biology.

I am left with two questions:

1) Why would officers so roughly detain someone who posed no threat and did not fit the description of the man they sought? Could it be that their implicit bias took over their reason?

2) If law enforcement knew they were seeking a man with PTSD, would pointing guns at him de-escalate anger and frustration with a car dealer? Wouldn’t it put their own lives and the life of the suspect at risk?

A recent National Public Radio report on law enforcement noted that when encountering someone they wish to detain, officers use military-like procedure. They ask the citizen to comply, then tell the citizen to comply and then make the citizen comply. This report indicates that there are alternatives to force called de-escalation, which can be part of training, but it is not widely used (find more information at http://bit.ly/de-escalationinfo).

We, as citizens of this community, can ask that this training be included in the education of our law enforcement officers. Let’s approach leaders of our law enforcement agencies, asking that they use this common-sense solution to a local problem.

Although GPD investigated his complaint, J.R. has yet to receive an apology because “procedures were followed.” Procedures aside, my family would like GPD to make a formal apology to our dear friend, J.R. Cloud.